Furnace



(No Modem j J. N; RUEBHAUSBN.

v FURNAUE.

No. 464,187. Patented Dec. l, 1891 .i n n-n w.. :gummi ulumlmnllllunlIIIII 'Illlllllllllljlllllllld Y V TN: News persas co..FHufwumoTwAsHmewn. n4 c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.-

JOHN N. RUEBHAUSEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FU RNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent lNo. 464,187, datedDecember 1,'1891.

iippliooiioo iiloa Novoootor 29,1890. soriol No. 373,017. (No model.)

To ttZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN N. RUEBHAUSEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in`Furnaces, of which the following` is a full and complete specification.

This invention relates to improvements in furnaces provided with meansfor directly supplying the products of combustion in the fire-chamberimmediately above the burning fuel with a supply of heated air forpromoting perfect combustion, andwhile hereinafter particularly shownand described in its application to steam-boiler furnaces my inventionis equally applicable to the lire-cham` bers of railroad engines,metallurgie fur- .,naces, the., wherein the perfect combustion kmay bepromoted by combining air with the burning products of combustion.

One object of this invention is to utilize the greatest possible heatarea and, as nearly as practicable, the hottest portionof thefirechamber for heating a supply of air prior to its discharge into theburning products of combustion.

Another object is to not only utilize the greatest possible area andhottest portion of a irechamber for raising the temperature of the airdischarged into the burning products, but at the same time tosubstantially protect that portion of the furnace immediately over thefire-chamber from the destructive effect of the intense heat thereunder,and to do all this by simple and effective devices, which by theirconstruction, operation, and arrangelnent may successfully resist thedestructive influences, although located nearer the surface of theburning fuel than is a boiler. The most important object of myinvention, however, is the successful accumulation of lthe ignitedproducts of combustion before their escape from the fire-chamber, andwhile at the highest degree of temperature that it is possible toaccumulate them, and then combining said u'nignited gases with oxygen,also heated to a maximum degree, and discharging the gases and air socombined into the fire-chamber immediately over the burning fuel'.y

More specificallyT stated, the prime object of lny invention is toaccumulate unignited gases, combine them withra continuous supply offresh air, and discharge said gases im-l mediately over the burning fuelin the tire-v chamber before said gases have escaped fromv thebridge-Wall or combustion-chamber of the furnace, whereby the combinedunignited gases and oxygen, while attlieir highest possible temperature,may be discharged audig-l nited in the fire-chamber, and, finally, toprovide certain details of construction, promote the efliciency,durability, and cost of the devices for attaining these objects, all ashereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, inwhich-4 v Figure l represents in perspective, with parts broken away, asteam-boiler furnace embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a perspec` tiveview of the accumulator and air-supply devices as they appear froman`under view when detached from the furnace, and Fig. v3 a sectionaltop plan view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawings.

Referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, A indicates asteam-boiler furnace; B, the bridge-Wall thereof; C, the grate-bars,over whicll is located the fire-chamber, and D a boiler, all of theordinary-construction and provided with one or more lire-chamber doors Eand ash-pit door F, usually employed.

Immediately above the grate-bars and at such a distance as not tointerfere with the ignition of the products of combustion and the draftof the furnace is1 a box G, which may be of any suitable material, suchas sheet or boiler iron or vitriied clay, suitably divided to formtherein a gas-accumulating chamber H and air-chambers I I, the gas-accumulating chamber, as shown, occupying a central position between theair-chambers I I; but it is proper to remark that my invention is notconfined to the particular arrangement of these chambers relative toeach other or to the form of the chambers themselves, as shown in thedrawings, for any other form of arrangement would obviously be withinthe spirit of my invention, whenever by their operation the air isheated and the accumuloo4 lated gas is combined therewith prior to itsdischarge into the lire-chamber, as hereinafter described.

The bottom of the gas-accumulator, whatever may be its form orarrangement relative to the other devices embodying my invention, isprovided with a series of perforations h upon its under side, throughwhich the unignited gases in the fire-chamber may pass into theaccumulator, and to this end said perforations may be of any formsecuring that result.

Opening into the forward ends of each of the air-chambers, which may beone or more in number, are pipes J J, the other ends'of which are openand communicate with the open air, so that said pipes in effect formairsupply passages to the air-chambers. As shown, these pipes extenddownwardly thro-ugh the fire-chamber 'into the ash-pit, andihencedownwardly from the furnace, thereby 'serving as a means for supportingone end of the gas-accumulating and `air chambers; but it would be nodeparture from v my invention to support the box G by brackets or otherequivalent means, or have the airsupply pipes J projecting downwardly ofthe furnace in a horizontal or other line f rom the-accumulator. y

At the opposite and rear end of the airchambers and communicatingtherewith a-re discharge-pipes K K, extending downwardly in thefire-chamber and provided at their lower ends with nozzles L L, soarranged that their discharge shall be in or -substantiallyin ahorizontal plane with reference to and above the bed of burning fuel,and, as shown, preferably' converging on lines centering at or about themiddle of the fire-chamber, where under ordinary circumstances there isthe most perfect combustion and therefore highest degree of heat; but myinvention is not limited to the relative angles of discharge of thesenozzles so long as their discharge is not a horizontal or practically'horizontal plane or a line parallel with the bed of burning fuel. Thesenozzles are preferably flattened, so that their discharge shall be in asheet-like form over the burning fuel; but my invention in this respectis not confined to any particular form of nozzle.

Communicating with the discharge-pipes K K -at a point removed from thenozzles are pipes M M, which open in or toward the rear end `of thegas-accumulator and serve as a passage for the gas from the accumulatorto the discharge-pipes, whereby the gas iu the accumulator is combinedwith the heated air in the discharge-pipes and injected through thenozzles into the fire-chamber,

ln operation the heating ofV the air in the ai r-chambers produces astrong draft through this `chamber and the supply and discharge pipes,which air-draft in turn produces a draft through the gas-accumulator anddischargepipes M M thereof, and as a result vthe unigber.

nited gases rising from the burning fuel are drawn fro'm thefire-chamber into the accumulator, and thence, after being combined withthe heated air, discharged with sufficient force to spread them out oversubstantially the entire surface of the burning fuel, or in any eventover the surface of so much of it as is required to thoroughly unite thecombin ed gas and air and cause them to perfectly ignite. The forcibledischarge of the combined air from the nozzles toward the front of thefurnace and the upward draft causing the unignited ,gases torascend intothe accumulator-does not retard, but, on thecontrary, results in apromotion of, the regular and forward draft of the furnace, for whateverresistance to that draft the ascending and discharge current may have ism-ore than compensa-ted for by the increased combustion and draftproduced thereby from the combustion of these before-un-g-nited gases.The unignited gases ascending into the accu rnlatorare those whichwithout the accumulator would be waste products of `cornbustion--that isto say, which would otherwise escape over the bridge-wall unignited andafterward become visible to some extent -in the form of smoke. A largeportion of these lunignited gases will not ignite without first Vbeingcombined with air, and ther-e isstill Aanother yportion that even whencombined with air will not ignite unl-ess at a very high temperature,when it will thoroughly combine with air at a very high temperature, andwhile man y structures have been devised in efforts to supply furnaceswith sufficient oxygen at a tempera-ture designed to cause the ignitionof these Waste products of 4combustion they vhave been su stantiallyunsuccessful, because the air so sup-plied could not be dist ribu'tedtocombined with these gases in sufficient volume to cause their ignition.In othervwords, efforts to produce perfect combustion in t'h'eiirechamber of furnaces have heretofore been confined to the directdischarge of that air, heated or otherwise, indiscriminately among allof the products of combustion rising from the burning fuel, and thercsult'is that much of that air is expended o-n gases not requiring it,so that itis not sufficient to supply the gases not ignited without it.VV'hen cold air is injected, the gases that are unigniti'ble withoutasubstantial supply of air a-re reduced to al temperature below whichthey will ignite wh en combined with air, and they therefore becomewaste products of combustion, whereas when IOO IIO

hot airis introduced the ai-r is expanded to such an extent that it doesnot contain sufficient oxygen to cause the combustion of these unignitedgases at the highest temperature they are subjected to while in thefire-cham- ,By my invention, however, the unignited gases are firstseparated from t-he ignitible gases, then thoroughly combinedwithsufficient oxygen at a temperature which in? sures' their ignition whendischarged into the re-chamber, and the result is that perfectcombustion is materially and substantially promoted in the fire-chamber.

In actual practice it has been found that in the use of my device in anordinary fur-nace there are no perceptible Waste products of combustionafter firing from the moment the' doors are closed long enough to permitthe natural draft of the furnace to assert itselfthat is, to come intofull operation--for although there may be a large amount of unignitedfuel and the gases rising above that fuel be chilled much below atemperature they will ever ignite the suction produced in f thefire-chamber by and the force of the current of air through theair-discharge pipe causes practically all of said gases to rise into theaccumulator and in'consequence prevent their escape from thebridge-Wall.

' From the foregoing it will be understood that my invention broadlyincludes a device of any suitable construction by which unignited gasesare extracted from the fire-chamber before they can escape into thecombustion-chamber and afterward combined with sufficient oxygen toproduce their ignition at a temperature and in a volume suicient toproduce the combustion of these gases When they are again dischargedover the burning fuel in the fire-chamber; and to this end the formofthe gas-accumulating chamber and the device supplying the air forcombiningy with accumulated gas and the arrangement of these devicesrelative to each other and to the fire-chamber or the fuel thereof areimmaterial so long as the accumulation of the gas, its combination withthe air, and its discharge into the nre-chamber at a point where it willignite is successfully accomplished.

My invention is broadly distinguished from the devicesheretofore'employed whereby the Waste products of combustion are takenfrom the breeching or combustion chamber of the furnace, for in bothinstances the unignited gases escape into the combustion-chamber beforethey are combined with air, and as a result are so reduced intemperature that a large portion of them will not ignite when combinedwith air prior to their discharge into the nre-chamber, becausedepending upon the temperature of the air to raise them to the point atwhich they will ignite and an air# temperature so high that it cannotsupply sufficient oxygen to cause` them to ignite, whereas in my devicesthe unignited gases are never exposed to the combustion-cham ber and arecombined with the requisite volume of oxygen and at a temperatureinsuring their perfect combustion.

In conclusion, it may be observed that for steam-boiler furnaces it isof advantage to have the gasaccumulator or the box combining agas-accumulator and air-heating chambers extend substantially orentirely across the fireachamber, because by so extendingthese devicesthe unignited gases, whichtend to corrode the boiler, and the directheat of the tire-chamber, which is very destructive to theboiler-sheets, are both isolated therefrom, the result being that thedurability and safety of the boiler are promoted, While at the same timeit is sn fliciently hot for all practical purposes.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is

1. The herein-described method for pro meting perfect combustion, thesame consisting in conducting from a fire-chamber the unignited gasesthrough openings directly i above the bed of burning fuel and in thepath of travel of said gases rising therefrom, then combining said gaseswith oxygen, and finally discharging the gases and air thus combined inthe fire-chamberin the proportions and at a temperature insuring theirperfect combustion, substantially as described. Y 2. The combination,With the nre-chamber of the furnace, of a gas-accumulator havingreceiving-openings immediately over the bed of burning fuel,adischarge-passage from said gas-accumulator into the fire-chamber, andan air-supply passage communicating with said vdischarge-passage at apoint next removed from the discharge-orifice thereof, substantially asdescribed.

3. In a furnace, the combination of the firechamber, a gas-accumulatorarranged above the same, an air-supply passage terminating in adischarge-passage opening into the tirechamber, and anaccumulator-discharge-pipe passage adjacent toand opening into saidairdischarge passage at a point next removed from the discharge-orificethereof, substantially as described.

4. In a furnace, the combination, with the fire-chamber, of agas-accumulator arranged above the bed of burning fuel and having aseries of openings or inlets on its under sidel only, an air-supplypassage terminating in av nozzle opening into the lire-chamber, 'and adischarge-passage for said accumulator, communicating withsaid'air-supply passage at a point removed from said nozzle,substantially as described. v 5. In a steam-boiler furnace, thecombination of the tire-chamber, a gas-accu`mulator, and an air-*supplyopening into ythe lire-chamber and communicating with the gas-accumulator, said accumulator being provided'on its under side with a seriesof inlets and arranged between the bed of burning fuel 'and the boiler,whereby the boiler is protected from the intense heat in thefire-chamber and isolated from Contact with the unignited gases,substantially Aas described.

Jol-1N N.' RUEBHAUSEN. j Witnesses: i

F. SCHINDLER, R. C. OMoHuNDRo.'

IOO

